Islands & Islets (10): An Inner Hebridean Odyssey ... Caterpillars

The churchyard at Trumpan, Waternish, Skye, where we saw ...

... a Knot Grass Caterpillar (earlier sighting here). 

We spotted this (?White/Buff Ermine or Clouded Buff) caterpillar near ...

... the wonderful Abbey on Iona.

Do let me know in the Comments section if you can help with the identification of the caterpillar on Iona! Thank you.

Islands and Islets (8): An Inner Hebridean Odyssey - Wildlife on Mull and Iona

Iona - as you approach by sea (or leave)

Approaching Iona from Mull

We spent three nights on Mull and one day on Iona. The weather wasn't brilliant, although the sun came out for a few hours during the afternoon of our last day (which we spent on Iona, where the colours of the kelp, the silver sand and the pure azure water were amazing).

We did not see many vertebrates during this leg of our journey - though we enjoyed watching the bats (not sure what species) at Uisken Beach on the Ross of Mull and a few rabbits here and there. We also saw four red deer on the wonderful road between Duart and Pennyghael, a toad in Bunessan and a seal in the strait between Lochaline and Fishnish.

Waiting for the ferry ...

My (separate)  Bird list is a little longer, though due to the wild weather, we didn't come across half the birds we had hoped to see. Needless to say, we thoroughly enjoyed watching the following (in order of sightings) ...

• Herring Gull - Uisken
• Hooded Crows - ditto
• Buzzards - not quite on every telegraph post!
• Pied Wagtails - Castle Duart
• Chaffinches - ditto
• Gannets - off the cliffs, not far from Bunessan
• Skylarks - Duart Castle
• Grey Herons - Pennyghael, Tobermory and elsewhere
• Swallows - (are these Swallows?) on Iona, taking shelter in the Abbey cloister rafters (photo below)
• Cormorant - Pennyghael
• Eiders - sea loch near Pennyghael
• Oystercatchers - ditto
• Curlew - ditto
• Golden Eagles (2) - back road or 'scenic route' to Salen
• Pheasant - Aros
• (Query) White-tailed Eagle - a rather distant sighting in the Craignure/Duart area ... I see one has been spotted in this area from the Treshnish (B)log of wildlife here
• ENORMOUS 'tidal wave' of Greylag at sunset rolling up the Sound of Iona
• White doves on the Abbey (do these count as wild? - 'Columba', of course, means 'dove')
• Song Thrush - Iona, near Abbey
• House Sparrows (2) - ditto (enjoying the fresh soil of an archaeological dig - photo at end of post)
• Robin - ditto
• Blackbirds - Iona
• Kestrels (2) - Ross of Mull
• Mallard (8) - Loch Spelve, Mull 
• Owls (2 unidentified) - Ross of Mull 

Taking shelter in the cloister in preparation for a LONG journey south

We loved the cloister, with its carvings by Chris Hall of Scottish birds and Holy Land plants

Do stone monkeys count as 'wild and wonderful'?

Almost time to touchdown ...

The Iona Community has the 'Wild Goose' as its symbol. Many associate the Community's worship with the liturgical compositions of John Bell. You can read about the background to the Community here in a book review by Dr Josh Sweden. The fascinating history of Iona, the island, is tied in with the MacDonald Lords of the Isles, and it was one of these, Reginald, who sent monks to found a Benedictine community in this out-of-the-way island that had been occupied by Columba. 

... and now it's time for a flypast

Looking out from Iona - I loved those volcanic tump-like rocks

We did not see many invertebrates during this leg of our journey. There was a wonderful striped caterpillar near St Oran's Chapel on Iona (photo for a future post), and plenty of craneflies in Bunessan on Mull. I also noted some bees and snails. There were a few sea anemones (these belong to the group of Cnidarians - like jellyfish) in the rock pools near the ferry on Iona.

The otters and cetaceans may have eluded me, but we saw many wonderful creatures nonetheless!

The archaeological dig ... has the dinosaur been excavated ... or was the Loch Ness Monster on holiday in the Hebrides?

Islands and Islets (4): An Inner Hebridean Odyssey

We have just returned from a holiday in West Scotland. We travelled from Glasgow to Skye, from Skye to Mull (via the Corran and Lochaline ferries) and finally from Mull to Iona (by the Fionnphort CalMac). The weather was definitely 'autumnal' most of the time, and there was one occasion on Skye when I found it hard to stand up on account of the force of the prevailing wind. We had horizontal rain - often followed by rainbows to cheer us on our way.

I hope to add a few specific wildlife details in the next couple of posts, but these are some general introductory views. My camera lens, needless to say, has never needed cleaning so much, and you may 'spot' the ubiquitous rain blobs here and there. I suspect the adverse weather conditions meant that we did not see as great a range of wildlife as we have on previous occasions. We had no *definite* sightings of cetaceans this time - and no otters, despite our short first visit to Mull.  

One of the highlights of our holiday on Skye (as always) was to visit the Dunvegan seals on the skerries in the loch from a small boat. The boatman has vast experience of these waters, and since we were only a 'party' of five, we were able to be almost 'nose-to-whisker' with these majestic and fascinating mammals. I was particularly interested to discover that the resident colony of Common Seals had embraced a single Grey/Atlantic Seal into the fold.

The photo above shows the wild and windswept shore at Staffin on Skye's Trotternish peninsula. We were the only souls on the beach, walking in the sunshine, while all around us a huge storm was brewing.

The seals above were on a skerry in Loch Carron. I always think of Plockton as a sheltered harbour, with its colourful fuchsia gardens and palm trees along the waterfront; but as soon as we were out on the loch, we hit a swell - and it was quite difficult to stand up, let alone hold the camera still! But the colours were superb, and don't really show up in this relatively small photo.

We left Skye and drove through Ardnamurchen to reach the island of Mull, with its iconic coloured houses at Tobermory (aka 'Balamory' by the under 5s). We had really hoped to catch a few special glimpses of wildlife on Mull, and indeed we did; but the blustery rainy weather may have caused some of the animals to 'hole up' away from the reach of cameras and scopes.

The small island of Iona was (almost) our final island destination. It is only 20 minutes by ferry from Mull, and we arrived in time for an excellent guided tour of the Abbey. The weather was mixed, but as you will guess from the water photo above, the sun finally shone for us, enabling us to appreciate the very beautiful shades of azure and ultramarine, which were offset by the intense amber of the sunlit kelp on the shoreline.

We thoroughly enjoyed exploring the Abbey, and watching the Wagtails and occasional fly-pasts of the Greylag geese.

I included this photo of Skye to remind myself (as much as anything) of the intensity of the blues in the sea lochs. We stopped here to take photos on our way to the Waternish peninsula ...

... where you can see the many lichens that grow on these stones at Trumpan Church - a sign of the pure air in this end-of-the-road part of the world.

It is still possible to hear the Corncrake in this exposed corner of Skye. We listened to the Hooded Crows and watched the wind blowing through the wool-lined fences.

I always enjoy a walk along the tidelines to see what has been washed ashore. I saw a (Lion's mane) jellyfish on the beach at Loch Brittle in Bracadale, which was also where I spotted the Sea Urchin above. Many years ago I used to be intrigued by the colourful urchin spines we found on our favourite Cornish beaches. I initiially thought that they were unusual spar-like minerals. They were the trigger for my poem, 'Sea Scribe', which has been included in my first chapbook collection, co-authored with John Dotson, 'The Holy Place'.

I have mentioned the many Wagtails. Well, we were also amazed by the number of Chaffinches. The one above looks a little overweight on account of his perch by the tea table at Dunvegan Castle on Skye, where we would recommend Earl Grey tea and locally-made lemon cupcakes!

The photo above was taken the day before yesterday at the small fresh-water island in Scotland's only lake - as opposed to loch, the Lake of Menteith. We took a couple of hours out, on our way to the airport, for a picnic lunch in the tranquil setting of Inchmahome. This small island is a nine minute boat ride from the shore, laid on by Historic Scotland, who care for the abbey. Inchmahome is usually a good place for Damselflies, with its nettles and blackberry bushes - but we only spotted one on this visit.

We may have seen a lot of rain, but this sheep, way up in the north of Skye, definitely had the right idea!